Marlins trade Lo Duca to Mets
Catcher Paul Lo Duca was acquired by the New York Mets on Monday in a trade with the Florida Marlins.
Florida gets two players to be named from the Mets, and the players won’t be announced until after Thursday’s winter meeting draft. Officials familiar with the trade have identified one as 19-year-old right-hander Gaby Hernandez.
Lo Duca followed ace right-hander Josh Beckett, third baseman Mike Lowell, Carlos Delgado and second baseman Luis Castillo out of Miami. Under orders from owner Jeffrey Loria, who has failed to gain financing for a new ballpark, Florida General Manager Larry Beinfest has cut about $ 38 million from the club’s 2006 payroll. The Marlins were at $ 60 million at the start of last season.
Lo Duca is owed $ 6. 25 million in each of the next two seasons, which will be paid by the Mets, and Florida remains responsible for the final $ 1 million of his signing bonus, which is due to be paid Nov. 30, 2008.
Lo Duca, who turns 34 in April, batted. 283 last season with 6 home runs and 57 RBI last season.
“Paul Lo Duca did an outstanding job for the Marlins,” Beinfest said. “He did a terrific job handling our pitching staff and consistently produced clutch hits.”
Free-agent pitcher Paul Byrd signed a two-year, $ 14. 25 million contract Monday with the Cleveland Indians. Byrd will make $ 7 million in 2006 and 2007, and the deal includes a club option for 2008 that could raise the value to $ 22 million over three seasons. The 35-year-old Byrd went 12-11 with a 3. 74 ERA in 31 starts for the Los Angeles Angels last season. He turned down a new deal with the Angels and offers from Baltimore, Kansas City and Texas to rejoin the Indians, who drafted him in 1991. Cleveland selected Byrd in the fourth round in 1991, and he spent four seasons in the club’s minor league system before being traded to the New York Mets in 1995. Byrd had his best season in 2002, going 17-11 with a 3. 90 ERA for the Royals.
Roger Clemens, Derek Jeter and Barry Bonds plan to play for the United States in the World Baseball Classic, while Alex Rodriguez is still deciding which country he wants to represent. Mike Piazza (Italy ), Andruw Jones (the Netherlands ) and Pedro Martinez (Dominican Republic ) are also among the 177 major leaguers who have agreed to participate in the inaugural, 16-nation tournament next March 3-20. Buck Martinez will manage a U. S. squad that already has commitments from other stars such as Derrek Lee, Dontrelle Willis, Andy Pettitte and John Smoltz. Ken Griffey Jr. wants in, and his father, Ken Sr., has signed on as a coach on the American staff. The Dominican lineup is loaded with talent, too, featuring Vladimir Guerrero, David Ortiz, Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano and Miguel Tejada — all of whom plan to participate.
The Oakland Athletics acquired right-hander Chad Gaudin from the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday for a player to be named. Gaudin, 22, was 9-8 with a 3. 35 ERA in 23 starts for Class AAA Syracuse last season, ranking fourth in the International League in ERA. He struggled in a brief stint in the majors, going 1-3 with a 13. 15 ERA in 5 appearances. Gaudin made his major league debut with Tampa Bay in 2003 aand also pitched for the Devil Rays the following season. He’s 4-5 with a 5. 46 ERA in 46 major league appearances, including 10 starts.
The St. Louis Cardinals signed catcher Gary Bennett and infielder Deivi Cruz to one-year, $ 800, 000 contracts. Bennett, 33, hit. 221 in 68 games for Washington last season with 1 home run and 21 RBI, and pitchers had a 3. 87 ERA with him behind the plate. He’s a career. 243 hitter with 15 home runs and 149 RBI in 458 games. Cruz, 33, hit. 265 in 101 games last season for San Francisco and Washington with five homers and 20 RBI. He was dealt to Washington at the trade deadline. Cruz plays mostly shortstop and second base, but also has 13 games experience at third base. Cruz would earn an additional $ 50, 000 for playing 120 games and $ 50, 000 each for 300 and 350 plate appearances. BASKETBALL Ex-ATU assistant gets probation
Former Barton County (Kan. ) Community College assistant coach Matt Skillman, was sentenced Monday to two years of probation for falsifying players’ federal work-study timecards. Skillman, who is no longer in coaching after spending last season as a men’s basketball assistant at Arkansas Tech, pleaded guilty in September to fraud and embezzlement while at Barton County Community College. He admitted mailing a falsified transcript for one player and completing academic work for others to help them obtain degrees. Besides probation, the 30-year-old Skillman was ordered to pay $ 26, 259 in restitution. Sexual assault charges against former La Salle basketball player Dzaflo Larkai were dismissed Monday because his accuser, a former member of the women’s team, decided not to proceed with the case on the day the trial was to begin. Larkai, 23, was accused of raping the 19-year-old woman in April 2003. She told authorities she didn’t make a report right away because coaches discouraged her from coming forward. Assistant District Attorney James Carpenter declined to say why the woman decided against taking the matter to trial. The woman testified during a preliminary hearing last year that she was drunk and asleep in her dormitory room when she awoke to find Larkai on top of her. She told authorities this year that she had informed women’s coach John Miller and men’s coach Billy Hahn immediately, but declined to file charges at the urging of both. The case, as well as another that involved two other La Salle players, ultimately led to the removal of both Hahn and Miller.
Seattle SuperSonics forward Rashard Lewis was charged Monday with drunken driving, resulting from an arrest on Interstate 90 in late September. Lewis, 26, was driving one of five cars speeding eastbound together at about 3 a. m. Pacific on Sept. 30, Washington State Patrol Trooper Curt G. Boyle wrote in an investigation report filed in King County District Court. Boyle wrote that he tried to pull over all five vehicles, which were traveling at up to 84 mph, but only two stopped. One was a 700-series BMW driven by Lewis, whose eyes were watery and speech was slurred, Boyle wrote. Lewis failed a field sobriety test and was taken to the Mercer Island Police Department, where he registered a 0. 132 and 0. 122 on successive breath tests, Boyle said. The intoxication threshold in Washington is 0. 08. GOLF Campbell Europe’s top golfer
Michael Campbell has been named golfer of the year by the European Tour after winning the U. S. Open and World Match Play Championship. The 36-year-old New Zealander claimed the accolade for the first time after finishing the 2005 season second behind Colin Montgomerie on the European money list. Campbell, whose previous best result in a major championship was tied for third at the 1995 British Open, finished the 2005 season with $ 3 million in prize money. He also tied for fifth at the British Open, sixth at the PGA Championship and recorded three more top-10 finishes this year. BOXING Parra retains WBA title
Undefeated Lorenzo Parra of Venezuela successfully defended his WBA flyweight title for the fifth time, unanimously outpointing Frenchman Brahim Asloum on Monday to improve to 27-0. Parra knocked down the 2000 Olympic light flyweight champion in the second round, and sent Asloum to his first loss in 20 professional fights. On the undercard, Omar Narvaez (20-0-2 ) of Argentina retained the WBO flyweight title, stopping Bernard Inom (13-1 ) of France in the 11 th round of a one-sided bout. Narvaez overpowered the WBO’s 10 th-ranked contender, landing heavy body and head combinations, while Inom connected with few of his punches. SWIMMING Accident not stopping Olympian
Olympic champion Otylia Jedrzejczak will return to swimming after an auto accident that killed her brother, left her injured and perhaps facing time in jail. “I’ll return to swimming because I love it,” Jedrzejczak said Monday in her first public appearance since her car hit a tree, killing 19-year-old Szymon. On Oct. 1, she tried to overtake several cars on a two-lane road near Plonsk, Poland. In an apparent attempt to avoid an oncoming car, she swerved into a ditch before crashing into a tree. She sustained spinal fractures and a head wound. Jedrzejczak, who won a gold medal in the 200-meter butterfly and added two silvers at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, has been charged with unintentionally causing the accident and could face from six months to eight years in prison if convicted.
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